Kich na Ichi
by Sanguine Dreams
Summary: [collection of AU/canon one-shots centering around Sakura] UP/./Glory: Being a heroine isn't always about the battles you win. Sometimes it's about the battles you watch without falling down.


**Glory**

Summary: Being a heroine isn't always about the battles you win. Sometimes it's about the battles you watch without falling down. [[a series of one-shots centering around Sakura]]

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Prompt: She grew up without scars.

Status: One-shot

Genre: General

Created on: 03/28/2013

Completed on: 05/16/2013

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"Haruno Sakura had a normal life when compared with Hinata. Hinata would make a better heroine."

-_ Kishimoto_

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When Sakura was seven, she found herself being bullied. It came to a shock to her that anybody would take the time and effort to be _mean_ to someone like her. Her parents weren't well-known ninjas in the village, they were just genins who made a living doing lower-class ranked missions and selling pastries during their free time. They never had higher expectations for their daughter.

So when Sakura was bullied and taunted about her forehead, she was at loss of what to do. She was average and never expected anybody to notice her. She didn't the carry world on her shoulders, nor did she have expectations she needed to bypass. She didn't come from a prestigious clan with bloodlines that gave her the edge she needed against others. She was just a normal citizen of Konohagakure, and she expected to stay as such.

It was hard her to understand why people pointed and looked at her bright pink hair weirdly, since her father had pink hair as well. His was just darker… but he was a man. A man _shouldn't_ have had pink hair and not be ridiculed like she was. But her dad had an easy going personality that laughed off the jabs people threw at him. Sakura couldn't laugh off the jokes or the taunts. She was too serious, and too gentle: too self-conscious. Her father was a jokester. Sakura didn't inherit any of that from her father; just her pink locks.

But her hair was what got her noticed, and her head was what got her mocked. She tried to stay strong. She wanted people to like her. So she grew out bangs in hopes that it would hide her head, and she would have friends again. When her mother asked her about her new hair style with worry in her eyes, Sakura waved it off and said it was a trend. She didn't want her mom standing up for her again.

She was strong in her own silent way. She still showed up to the same park she got made fun of at; she showed up in school with her bangs. Even when the other kids didn't want to play with her or talk to her, her smiles never wavered and her eyes never dimmed. **She was strong where it counted. **

Even if it made her feel a bit lonely at times.

Then, a girl named Ino gave her a ribbon and told her to show off her forehead and her world expanded. Ino became her best friend in school. Her only friend. Even when they both ended up falling in love with the same brooding boy, she never forgot the lessons her friend taught her because they were precious. It might have been selfish of her to severe the bonds that she had with Ino at the time, but she needed to do something for herself. Because she was strong, and strong people usually didn't have to explain themselves to others. Sakura found the perfect opportunity to stop depending on her blonde haired friend.

She supposed it wasn't the smarted thing she did in her life, but the decision was made and Sakura didn't back down; even when she wanted to cry from the cold shoulder Sasuke gave her. So she was persistent and gave it her all.

But she couldn't understand him like Naruto could. They both came with scars already deeply engraved within their beings. They both came from a line of impressive ninjas and heroes. She was just average.

So, she hated Naruto and rejected him. She hated him because that was what the village taught her to do at a young age. She hated him for the fear and horror stories her parents told her when she was younger. She hated him for being a monster. She hated him because he _understood_ Sasuke. And for a moment in her life, Sakura was weak because she was human.

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When Sasuke left even after she offered him everything her young life could offer, Sakura decided to stop hating. To stop being jealous of people she could not control, of events she could not change. It wasn't her fault she grew up with normal parents in a normal part of the village. It wasn't her fault she only had average chakra levels. It wasn't her fault she couldn't change Sasuke's mind.

But what she did have was perfect chakra control and a will to become more than what everyone expected her to be. She stopped fretting about her skin and how smooth it should be. She stopped fretting about her hair.

Years later, during a vicious battle with some missing-nin on an A-ranked mission, Sakura stared at the deep gash she got on her leg and refused medical treatment. She earned her first physical scar that night. When the wound finally healed into an ugly red mark, Sakura never found something more beautiful to look at. She changed her daily outfit and opted for shorter leggings. She wanted to show the world that just because she grew up without scars, it didn't mean she couldn't _earn them_.

Her outfit became shorter and less ornamented. Her red apron stayed, because she preferred to keep things simple and clean. She didn't want people paying attention to what she wore; rather, she wanted them to notice her for **her**. She kept her hair short to remind her of her promise to herself, _that she could be stronger_.

**She was strong because she was still growing.** And she refused to look back. Her progress was slow compared to others, but she never gave up. She didn't grow up with blood limits or a special set of skills. What she grew up with was what she earned through hard work and tears. **She wasn't going to give up.**

"_I want to train under you, Hokage-sama."_

It came as a gust of wind in the Haruno household, when the baby girl of the family came home one day and declared that she was now studying under the Hokage herself. The Slug Princess. The Legendary Sucker. Tsunade.

The Haruno parents didn't know what they did in their lives to merit such news, they never wanted their only daughter to brave on the world like she had. She would have been better off just being a civilian. But she was placed into Team Seven with three of the most infamous males in town. The copy-nin. The demon. The sole survivor. So, they figured their daughter would have turned out differently with a group like that. It didn't take away from the shock though. Their daughter, Sakura, was growing exponentially in front of their eyes, and there was nothing they could do.

They could only watch as their daughter stumbled back home every day drenched in sweat and depleted of chakra.

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**She was Haruno Sakura.** Her name befitted her physically, but she was anything but delicate or short lived.

She could create craters the size of a city using just her fist; heal and extract poison; analyze and trick her enemies before you blinked; and she could calm down a demon named Naruto. She wasn't delicate or weak. Her hands roughened by the many exposures she had with nature, her legs toned from all the battles she had to evade; her body hardened by all the training she put herself through; but all in all, she was still the same sweet caring girl she was when she was five. Because her heart was as big as the sky, and her courage for her friends and her village rivaled the universe.

**Haruno Sakura was strong where it mattered.** She loved and continued to love a traitor because she _understood_. She loved because she was open minded, because she knew Sasuke before and he had thanked her for loving him. Because he was still one of them in her heart, because her heart was as big as the sky. And she continued to love her because even though she knew it was wrong, she also knew it wasn't something she could control. Whenever she saw him, she saw a lost boy who never grew up like the rest of them did. But, Sakura wasn't stupid either; she knew he had to die, because if it came between the love of her life or her village and the safety of friends, she could live without her heart: not her world.

So she tried to kill her love on her own, but realized she couldn't, not because she was too in love, but rather she couldn't betray Naruto. Naruto believed in this man, she knew he did and for her to kill him would be shoving Naruto's beliefs and optimism up Orochimaru's dead ass. So, she paused and that almost caused her her life.

_Tsuande-sama would be disappointed._ Sakura thought when she saw her life flash before her eyes. As a medic-nin, she was to survive. She needed to stay out of battle, evade the enemies, and _support_ her team. It wasn't her job to kill the enemies; she was there to _save_ her comrades and make sure most of them came back.

So she watched as her friends rushed forward to the offense as her gloved hands twitched, ready for battle. But, she held back because the team needed her as a medic. Not a fighter. **So she watched their backs because she was strong.** She held back because she couldn't fight and get herself killed. If the medic-nin died, hope was lost.

**Because Sakura was a heroine.**

Being a heroine isn't always about the battles you win. Sometimes it's about the battles you watch without falling down. Without losing hope.

And she was full of heroism because she was not just a ninja. She was born without expectations to exceed, but exceeded everything. She was born without bloodlimits, but she learned her own jutsus and worked hard enough to rival many of the powerful clans. She was born without scars, but the ones she had she earned through blood and tears.

**She was Haruno Sakura**.

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**Note:** So this is my take on her character, so please review or flame as you see fit. I would love to see what you guys think!

I love Sakura, but I dislike the way many people assume she is weak simply because she isn't in the midst of battle all the time. She grew up untainted like the majority of the characters in _Naruto_, and without superhero powers. Personally, I feel that she could be one of the strongest people in the show by improvement alone, next to Lee (I love his youthfulness to death!).

Sorry if there are any errors (grammatical or otherwise) in this story. I ran it through once and I don't have a beta (would anyone like to be?).

I swear I'll update my other stories soon, but my muse has seemed to run off into a distant land with unicorns and cotton candy. I hope I can take rainbow road and track her down.

Once again, please review. They keep me grinning in my sleep and fire my passion for clicking away on my keyboard. Cheers!

- Sanguine Dreams


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